the whole point of Christianity is that Jesus sacrificed himself to absolve humanity of the original sin. The cross represents the sacrifice.
Except earlier it said to have no idols. The cross is an idol. You can appreciate a sacrifice without using the tool that caused such sacrifice as a form of worship. If you rather jumped in front of you and died to a gun shot, he sacrificed his life to save you and you would be appreciative. Would you then wear a gun necklace around your neck to show you love your dad and the sacrifice he made for you? By sanctifying his murder weapon?
LIES THEY USED DIE FISHE SYMBOL IN ITS EARLIER LIFESPAN!!!
Christianity is a man made religion shaped to control people in which you are supposed to “worship” a really high authority that cannot be questioned.
Are their non man made religions I should know about?
I feel like dogs would have a good religion. I wanna subscribe to that.
Of course he liked crosses! There was even that one cross he used to hang at.
The American Christian message: Act like Jesus and we will crucify you too.
Not a religious person here, but I think it’s a metaphor, where we all are carrying a cross, like jesus did, but smaller… and lighter…
So not like Jesus at all then
holly molly, you are not a person of metaphors, right?
They only wear tiny crosses if they also have tiny Jesus on them. The lesson of the crucifixion pain can only manifest if everything is to proper scale.
just another example of Christians cherry picking what they what to use from their religion and using it out of context to better serve their agendas.
Christianity is just another weird death cult. I never understood why the Romans had an issue with him until I learned that Jesus was literally proselytizing that people were going to raise from the dead. I am not talking about the afterlife, he was saying that people are going to unalive and his kingdom would be on this earth with everyone who died coming back to life.
Fucking whacko to say the least and then sure enough his cult had him come back to life like he said everyone else would. Sooo yeah they were fucking crazy and so is everyone who thinks a ancient book contains all the answers. Hint: it doesn’t.
“You think if Jesus comes back he ever wants to see another fucking cross? Thats probably why he hasn’t come back yet. ‘Nope, they’re still wearing crosses.’ That’s like walking up to Jacky Onassis wearing a rifle on your lapel. ‘Just thinking about John, Jacky.’” finger guns
- Bill Hicks
I can’t speak for everyone, but when I wear a cross it’s in reference to Matthew 16:24
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”
To me the cross is symbolic of finding the courage to live our lives motivated by a radical love in order to overcome the fear of death and pain.
It’s like Goku once said while fighting to save the world “this is the power to go further beyond”
Potential problem:
The Greek word that is, in basically every English translation rendered as ‘cross’… does not actually specifically mean ‘cross’.
The word is stauros.
What it literally means is roughly a wooden ‘pole’ or ‘stake’, and was colloqiually used at the time to just refer to any configuration of wooden poles upon which one would be crucified… which, while yes, were often in the shape of a cross, they also often weren’t… maybe a T, or an X, or just a straight pole.
It was also used… I don’t think in the New Testament, but other Greek writings from the same time… to just mean large pieces of worked wood used in construction, even just ‘a tree’, though those uses rely a bit more on the surrounding context.
The English ‘crucify’ is built on the assumption that it was an actual cross. In greek, the verb for ‘crucify’ is stauroo, unconjugated; ‘to fasten to a stake or pole.’
… Its kind of like how ‘Matthew’ incorrectly translates the Hebrew word almah into the Greek word for ‘virgin’, when he quotes Isaiah 7:14 in Matthew 1:22-23, to say that Jesus’ birth fulfils prophecy.
Almah, in Hebrew, just means ‘young woman’… basically, of marriage age, so for the time, that would basically be… post-puberty, roughly 14, up to maybe early 20s.
It can mean ‘virgin’, but it does not specifically, necessarily mean ‘virgin’… in roughly the same way in English, right now, a ‘young woman’ could be a vrigin, is probably more likely to be a virgin than an old woman, generally speaking… but it absolutely does not categorically mean ‘virgin’.
That’s definitely the intended meaning of wearing a cross, and a really powerful and important scripture.
It’s worth remembering though that ‘cross’ isn’t the word that Jesus said here but the Greek word recorded is stau·rosʹ which means execution or torture stake and the cross wasn’t a contemporary use for impailment by the Romans, primarily because a stake was a much more painful death than a cross.
The cross was a pagan idol for many centuries before Jesus death and was later rolled into the account of Jesus’ death by the later Christian Church to help with the conversion of those pagans.
Do you have any sources on the claim that it wasn’t a cross and was changed later for pagans? The scripture references “coming down” from the cross which to me would imply the one we typically think of.
Also from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impalement,
"I see crosses there, not just of one kind but made differently by different [fabricators]; some individuals suspended their victims with heads inverted toward the ground; some drove a stake (stipes) through their excretory organs/genitals; others stretched out their [victims’] arms on a patibulum [cross bar]; I see racks, I see lashes … "
Sounds like Seneca, a figure from exactly this time period confirms the type of cross we think of.
Do you have any sources on the claim that it wasn’t a cross and was changed later for pagans?
No they do not.
There are writings from around ~200 talking about how the letter T and Tau look like the execution cross. Around the same time where the word “σταυρός”(cross) appears in New Testament versions.
The change to the modern/lower case version did start to happen around the time of conversions and suppression of pagans began. But as far as I am aware there is no evidence that was the reason. Specially since it didn’t really take off for a couple of hundred years, and became big with the crusades.
Another good piece of evidence I just thought of is the oldest known depiction of Jesus: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexamenos_graffito
It seems the claim might originate with Jehovah’s Witnesses in modern times.
Jesus is lord.
Cross defeats Jesus.
Cross is lord.
Ironically, the cross is a symbol of unjust suffering. Something which the more prominent wearers like to inflict on others.
Everything about Christianity is basically backwards from what Jesus actually fucking said.
No idolatry is the first commandment for a reason. People that worship the idol of the cross have already failed to learn what the religion was to teach.
Basically, look at Republicans. They absolutely worship the flag yet at the same time defile everything the country supposedly stands for.
No, it represents how Jezus died for our sins, so that we can be free to sin as we please.
its because the roman empire hijacked the religion and after their collapse the leftovers (Catholic church) forced an entire continent into 1000 years of oppression.
Be more specific. Constantine did it, he blended Christianity with the Roman religion in the most convenient way possible
I have always thought that choosing the cross as the universal symbol of Christianity is the most twisted and sad thing in the world.
That is why I prefer the Ichthys. It represents Jesus’s high point, when he performed a miracle for the all the people. For me, it’s better to remember people at their best than at their worst.
Looks ancient egypt to me.
Referenced by my favorite Philip K Dick novel VALIS, the symbol of early Christianity: Fish cannot carry guns.
The Vast Active Living Intelligent System… I read that 30 years ago as a teenager and didn’t really understand it then. He really hated Nixon though, even as a kid I could discern that much!
Oh, I always thought it was because he’s a fisher of men.
It also means that! The fish and the loaves, the fisher of men, the fish that Jesus ate after his resurrection. It is a symbol with a very broad meaning.
Oh, I see.
It was inherited from Zoroastrianrism.
Not christian, but I would assume the cross is a reminder of Jesus dying for our sins.
You would be correct. My church growing up did NOT use crosses, instead remembering his life and not his death. That always made more sense to me.
Not hating on your church or anything, but isn’t his death the whole point? Like if he didn’t die in that manner and then theoretically come back, he’d just be some guy. There’d be no need for the religion. I feel like his death makes the whole thing come full circle. It’s not just about being good, it’s about then being willing to sacrifice for the good of everyone.
I think the point was living by his teachings and remembering his sacrifice, but without glorifying or worshiping the object of his torture and death.
Yeah, that makes sense. Do you mind me asking what kind of church you went to? Was it nondenominational or did it have a denomination?
I grew up Mormon.
I kinda of knew with the whole cross thing. I think the Mormons are pretty unique amongst Christians for this point of view. Also the denial of the triunion and the whole God coming down in a physical form to fuck his daughter to make Christ.
The Roman/Western imperialist mind can only worship pain and suffering?
